Oh dear, It’s that very busy time of year when things start to snowball and I realise I haven’t been posting as regularly on my blog!

I have been very busy sewing things to sell at a W.I. christmas craft fair which I am having a stall at next month. I have also managed to do some new machine embroidery designs for the website, which should be going on very soon. There are 3 lovely dragonfly designs, inspired by the real dragonflies I saw on one of my Naze walks recently. Then I have also made a very sweet polar bear design and a pretty snowflake.

Last week I had an argument with a local store manager over the phone and needed to go out to calm down! I took my camera off to the beach and spent an hour watching the Turnstones searching for food among the rocks where the tide had gone out. This is one of the photographs I took. They are very cute little birds that live on our beach in the winter then fly to Canada for the summer. They tend to stay in large groups so there were lots of them among the rocks. They lift the stones with their beaks, hence their name! I felt much more relaxed after spending time just watching them. Nature is wonderful therapy!

Yesterday morning I couldn’t sleep so was up really early. I grabbed my camera and decided to watch the sun come up on the beach. Here are a few of the photos I took.

I love the very early light on this one, with the rocks in the sand silhouetted.

This one caught some rays going up through the cloud which I like. The next one is some seagulls which took flight as I walked along.

We have several wartime bunkers buried on the beach when the tide is out. I liked the light around this one.

I took loads of photos, but these few were my favourites!

Sorry if you are waiting for the free machine embroidery files for October, they are on their way but will be a bit late as we have been busy on other projects. This month we will have a pumpkin (for obvious reasons!) and the cute children’s tractor will also be free for a while.

We have had a lovely week with the grandchildren here doing all the classic beach holiday stuff. The weather was mostly kind to us. I took loads of photographs of course! I love this one of my grandson ‘posing’ in a fairground ride bus. I know I’m biased, but he is so cute!!! He’s going to be a heartbreaker when he’s older.

We went to our local airshow which is held on the beach at Clacton. I love the wing walkers and took this photo of one going upside down while standing on the plane. Personally I wouldn’t do it for a million dollars!

I have been stitching out the new Christmas designs today. So far I have a Christmas pudding, bells, holly and a cute snowman. They should be available in the website shop by the end of this week. I have also been ordering new supplies as I was running low on everything. Now I have to wait for all the parcels to arrive. Don’t you just love the anticipation of waiting for parcels?!

Our new free special offers for August are now available on the website. These are a very cute robot which children would love stitched on their clothing, bedding or a bag. There is also this pretty little butterfly for more feminine items.

It is very warm here today and our beach looks like the mediterranean it is so packed. The sea did look very inviting! We had a walk out along the Walton Backwaters where it was quiet and peaceful and there was a bit of a breeze blowing. It was deserted! I think half the people who come to the beach here don’t know it exists, which is a real shame because it’s such a beautiful wildlife area.

Our poorly cat, Cajun, is much better now he is on regular medication and has had his teeth sorted! He is back to his old inquisitive self. He also tries every way to avoid his medicine and we have to keep thinking of new foods to hide it in!!

What a beautiful day it was yesterday! The beach was very busy even though its only March. We saw a very unusual pigeon on the rocks. It was jet black with white tailbars and an iridescent green ruff on its back. It was very tame, hopping right up to us. As it was ringed I think it must have been a fancy pigeon who had got a bit lost. Maybe it just fancied a day at the seaside!!

In the evening we saw the amazing full moon there is at the moment, with the moon closer to the earth. It was very bright.

I have been learning to use some new embroidery software we bought and it looks very good. The photostitch part is excellent so when we are confident with it we will be able to offer this service. The website has been updated and the new designs are all up,